Amber Lester, Internal Medicine, received the 2013 SPIRIT Award for Innovation.

Lester embraces change to improve all we do:

“Amber Lester as our lead biller/coder is always seeking new and improved ways to benefit not only our department but the entire practice.  Over the course of the past year, Amber has helped implement the new electronic receipt which has helped patient satisfaction in terms of speeding up the check-in process along with helping ensure the proper payment is charged to the correct patient.  The electronic receipt has also helped the patient since they now receive a more readable copy of their receipt, within seconds, versus the old triplicate hand-written receipt.  This process has also helped when reconciling batches and payments at the end of the day since each PSS member retains a copy during the workday and if there is an overage or shortage, it is much easier to track and correct the discrepancy.

Amber has also just started implementing a new demographic and insurance verification form the practice hopefully will have in place over the next few months.  This form will be given to the patient at check-in to verify their demographic information along with verifying their insurance information.  With this form in place, it will help cut down on the number of insurance claims that are filed incorrectly, which, in turn, will shorten the amount of time between the date of service and the date the department/practice are paid. She also has several other ideas we may see in the months or year to come. I believe with all she has done in the past 12 months for Internal Medicine and the practice, Amber is most deserving of the award for innovation for the past year.”